The Nightmare: Part 1
by Mylinda Antoinette
Summary: Sonia has a nightmare one night after she and her brothers have been reunited with their mother for less than a month. She is frightened because of the nightmare. This is my first fic so please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

Sonia awoke to a peaceful morning. It was so quiet! She loved having her own room! She rolled over to look at her clock. Then she realized that something was very wrong. Sure, the palace was quiet- too quiet for 7:30 AM. She got up and tip-toed over to her wardrobe, selected a dress and put it on. She then put on her favorite pair of shoes before running down the hall to Queen Aleena's room. Her brothers, Manic and Sonic, along with all the palace servants, were already crowded around the queen's bed, heads hanging sadly.

Something inside Manic told him to look up. He did, and he saw his sister standing in the doorway. He nudged Sonic. The two brothers ushered their sister out into the hall.

Once there, Sonia asked what was wrong. Sonic hated to have to tell her, but he knew that since Queen Aleena was her mother, too, she deserved to know the truth. "Well, sis, after you went to bed last night, Mom collapsed."

Sonia gasped in fear. "Oh, no; is she okay?" she nervously inquired.

Sonic hesitated. "No. She's dead," he finally admitted. Sonia's eyes filled with tears.

"We did all we could do for her, but she passed away during the night," Manic gently added.

"But we… we barely knew her! We've only been reunited for a month!" Sonia sobbed. Just then, they heard the sound of footsteps running down the hall, and they turned toward the sound. "Knuckles!" Sonia cried in relief as he stopped in front of her. She fell into his arms as he wrapped them around her. She laid her head on his chest and kept on crying as he began to speak.

"Oh, Sonia, I… I'm so sorry, Sonia! I came as soon as I heard. Your brothers called. They… they thought you might need a shoulder to cry on." Sonia glanced up at her brothers with a shocked expression on her face.

"_You_ (sob) sent for him?" Her brothers smiled as best as they could under the circumstances and nodded. "Thank you (sob) so much!" Sonia cried. She turned her attention back to Knuckles. "Knuckles, what I (sob) love most (sob) about you is (sob) how you always (sob) seem to come when I (sob) need you (sob) the most," she managed before bursting into tears again.

"I hate to interrupt, Sonia, but I must ask if you wish to see Mom one last time before her funeral," Manic told her. Sonia could nothing but nod. Leaning on Knuckles for support, she followed her brothers as they led her to their mother's side. The closer Sonia got, the more she could swear she could still hear their beloved mother's voice calling her name. "Sonia… Sonia…"

Then, she felt an icy hand touch her arm the way only her mother ever had…


	2. Chapter 2

Aleena lay awake in bed late at night, listening to the soft sound of Manic's breathing. Her other two children lay asleep in their own rooms down the hall. Manic had chosen to sleep on the floor in her room rather than receive his own room after they had regained control of the city and moved back into the palace. He had said he wanted to 'make up for lost time'. She chuckled as she remembered that.

Her children been asleep for hours, but Aleena herself was too distressed to sleep. She had only just been reunited with her children after many years of separation, and she wanted to be able to spend more time with them, but she had so much to do. Her kingdom needed her guidance now more than ever to restore things to the way they once were, before Robotnik had taken over and destroyed everything. 'He'll be dead tomorrow,' she reminded herself. His trial had taken place two days ago and had been sentenced to execution on charges of sedition, or high treason. The execution would take place in the morning at 9:45, and everyone was invited to the celebration afterwards.

Aleena knew the streets and citizens of Mobius better than ever before, after all those years of wandering the streets, constantly searching for her children, waiting for the time to come for them to reunite and bring an end to Robotnik's reign of terror. She also knew that because of this, she would be a better queen than she ever had been. Maybe Robotnik _had_ done _some_ good.

Her problem was that, as both a queen and a mother, she had two different instincts, her queenly instinct and her motherly instinct, that were telling her two different things. Her queenly instinct told her that her duty to her subjects was more important, but her motherly instinct told her that her duty to her children was more important. What was she going to do? She decided she had better get some sleep- for the good of both her subjects and her children- and think about it in the morning. She thought about her three beautiful, dear children once more before she closed her eyes- and she fell asleep immediately.


	3. Chapter 3

Aleena woke at 7:30 AM. She lay there, thinking about the dilemma that had cost her so much sleep the previous night. All of a sudden, she heard a strange sound, like a muffled cry. She got out of bed and slipped into her favorite dress. Then she ran a brush through her hair and thrust her crown on before running down the hall. The sounds seemed to be coming from Sonia's room.

She knocked lightly on her daughter's door, and when she didn't get an answer, she looked around carefully to make sure no one was coming before quietly entering Sonia's room. Closing the door behind her, she looked for the source of the sound. She realized the sound was coming from her daughter, who was crying in her sleep. Queen Aleena glided over, as if she were floating on air, to Sonia's bed and sat gently on the edge. "Sonia? Sonia? Wake up, sweetheart," she urged her sleeping daughter. She laid her hand on her daughter's arm to aid the waking process.

Sonia awoke with a start and another cry. She saw her mother sitting next to her and quickly sat up, her green eyes filling up with tears again. "Oh, Mother," she sobbed, leaning into her mother like a young child and wrapping her arm around her at the same time.

"There, there, my child, it's all right. Shhhhh," Aleena said in an attempt to soothe her daughter's emotions. She gently, but tightly, embraced Sonia, holding her close, as if to protect her from harm.

"I had a dream that you got really sick and collapsed after I went to bed, and that you died. I was so afraid that it was true!" Sonia confided to her mother.

"Don't be afraid, Sonia, my dear. It was just a dream." Aleena then smiled, her eyes shining with a secret. "But you had better stop crying, dry your eyes, and get up. You have a last minute appointment with someone who will be here in an hour to see you." Sonia sat silent for a minute, puzzled. Then suddenly her face lit up.

"Knuckles?" she asked her mother excitedly. Aleena nodded, her eyes twinkling.

"Now get up and go put on your new dress. Like I said, your boyfriend will be here in an hour." She laughed her delicate, queenly laugh as she watched Sonia's cheeks turn pink. Sonia leapt out of bed and gave her mother one final quick embrace, warmly returned by her mother, before rushing into her private bathroom to take a bath and get ready for Knuckles' arrival.

Queen Aleena sighed in contentment. She was so much happier now that she had her children. It was at that moment she realized that her children _were_ her subjects- her _most loyal_ subjects- and that in this fact, the solution to her dilemma from the previous night laid.


End file.
